Will Parrish: Willits Bypass Timeline

“Each solitary story belongs to a larger story.” — Susan Griffin, A Chorus of Stones

In Willits, many people have not taken kindly to the California Department of Transportation’s asphalt imperialism, which entails spreading more than 140,000 dump truck loads of fill in Little Lake Valley, building bridges, disturbing creeks, killing fish, covering up wetlands, cutting down riparian forests, removing roughly 2,000 oak trees, taking away farm land. It is likely that even more overall harm will be done by a politically stilted mitigation plan that centers on excavating wetlands soils in the name of creating wetlands.

Opposition continues to the present. Some of the more persistent protectors of Little Lake Valley continue to attempt to downsize the project’s northern interchange — arguably its most destructive feature. Now that the US Army Corps of Engineers has lifted its suspension of the project, thanks to pressure from Willits Bypass supporters such as Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, though, it appears highly unlikely that any aspect of the project’s design will be changed.

Many people have criticized Bypass opponents for failing to speak up prior to construction. But the opposition to the Willits Bypass has persisted for more than 20 years. What follows is a timeline that emphasizes opposition to the project prior to January 2013, when direct action against the project kicked off.

The Willits Bypass has not happened in a vacuum. And, like a wetlands ecosystem, history is complex. There are infinite threads tying it together. This timeline offers only some of them.

1988

The Thatcherite government of the United Kingdom authorizes construction of the Newbury Bypass, a 9-mile-long dual carriage roadway that bypasses the town of Newbury in Berkshire, England. The road involves clearing roughly 360 acres of land and felling 1,000 mature trees. Over 800 people are later arrested protesting the roadway as part of what becomes known as “The Third Battle of Newbury.” The campaign fails to stop the Bypass’ construction but does play a critical role in pressuring the British government to scrap numerous other road construction proposals planned under a national highway building program.

Caltrans convenes the first of many meetings regarding possible Willits “bypass” designs. These meetings include citizen groups, elected officials and local public agency employees. Participants brainstorm multiple options for constructing a non-freeway bypass around Willits.

1992

Municipalities throughout the US celebrate the 500thanniversary of Columbus’ landing on the Dominican Islands. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Columbus Day is slated to include, among other things, sailing replicas of Columbus’ ships under the Golden Gate Bridge and reenacting the “discovery” of America. In response, the Bay Area Indian Alliance’s “Resistance 500” task force organizes a blockade, with about 4,000 protesters (including Indigenous Pomo people from Mendocino County) arrayed along the city’s waterfront, supported by boats and kayaks that block off entrance to the harbor, preventing the re-enactment of Columbus’ landing. Berkeley, CA becomes the first US city to rechristen Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day.

In spite of the 1988 brainstorm session, CalTrans unilaterally eliminates all non-freeway versions of a Willits Bypass from consideration.

1995

In central Oregon, roughly an hour’s drive from Eugene, a blockade of a forest road leading to the Warner Creek timber sale in the Willamette National Forest kicks off. A salvage logging rider signed by President Bill Clinton had just permitted thousands of timber sales on public lands. It becomes the longest forest road blockade in US history, ending after 343 days. Just before the Forest Service moves in to evict the protest, the Clinton administration responds to pressure by “saving” Warner Creek and more than 150 other controversial sales around the West from logging.

All of the government agencies with a regulatory stake in the Willits Bypass project sign a Memorandum of Understanding with CalTrans regarding the “Purpose and Need” of the Willits Bypass. This agreement entails designing for a “Level of Service C,” which CalTrans defines in a way that can only be accomplished with a four-lane freeway.

2002

The California Fish and Game Commission declares that coho salmon warrant listing as a threatened species from the Oregon border south to Punta Gorda (Humboldt County) and as an endangered species from Punta Gorda south to San Francisco, including the Bay itself. The listing affords coho greater legal protection from harm following more than a century and-a-half of persistent habitat destruction and overharvesting.

CalTrans presents its draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR). CalTrans receives approximately 400 comments from the public, more than half calling for non-freeway alternatives to their version of the Willits Bypass.

2006

A tree sit begins in Berkeley, CA to block cutting of the last remnantof coast live oak woodland ecology in the Berkeley lowlands by the University of California to build a sports complex. The tree-sit and associated protest brigs together environmentalists, Indigenous people, and critics of university privatization.

CalTrans releases its final EIR, with modifications to the route and a promise to mitigate impacts to threatened fish, rare and threatened plants, oak woodlands, riparian habitats, and wetlands. The Willits Environmental Center (WEC) informs CalTrans it intends to sue over National Environmental Policy Act and California Environmental Quality Act violations. The WEC enters negotiations with Caltrans.

2007

Amid protest, the Federal Highways Administration, allied agencies, and corporate contractors complete construction of the Indiana segement of the I-69 superhighway slated to extend from Ontario to Mexico. This massive highway is otherwise known as the NAFTA Superhighway, since its construction is spurred by the North American Free Trade Agreement: a trade pact between the US, Canada, and Mexico heavily criticized for causing millions of Mexican farmers to lose their lands, as well as displacement of jobs into Mexican sweatshops and widespread environmental destruction.

In lieu of a lawsuit, the Willits Environmental Center signs a Settlement Agreement with Caltrans that adds the WEC to the resource agency team helping Caltrans to develop a mitigation plan for the bypass. Later, in a decision partly influenced by the WEC, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) denies funding for the four-lane freeway bypass (the cost of which Caltrans estimates as being $356 million). The CTC later releases a lesser amount and instructs CalTrans to design something smaller. CalTrans retains its ultimate four-lane freeway design, but now talks about “phased” construction. Among the design modifications CalTrans proposes to account for the funding decrease are a roundabout at the northern end of the project, instead of a northern interchange. At this point, CalTrans likes roundabouts.

2008

CalTrans begins formulating a mitigation plan for the expressed purpose of counteracting damage to Little Lake Valley’s wetlands, woodlands, and endangered species, as required by federal and state laws. CalTrans’ initial assessment of Little Lake Valley determines that not enough areas exist for wetlands creation projects, because so much of the land is already wetlands. Meanwhile, Caltrans begins purchasing land on which to conduct mitigation projects from willing sellers in Little Lake Valley. Eventually, they buy approximately 2,100 acres with the intent of expanding cattle grazing as a form of mitigation. At this point, CalTrans likes cattle.

2010

Following Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment, protests against totalitarian rule erupt throughout Tunisia in December. A wave of unrest sparked by the Tunisian “Burning Man” strikes Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, and Yemen, resulting in the overthrow of many of these governments. The so-called “Arab Spring” helps spark the “Occupy Movement” protests and encampments in the United States, marking the largest coordinated movement in this country in decades.

March: CalTrans formally requests Clean Water Act 401 and 404 Permits — the two permits required to begin construction. The public comment period on the 401 and 404 Permit requests yields an unusually large number of comments; the vast majority oppose the project.

June: CalTrans hastily rewrites the Habitat Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (HMMP) and puts out a new “final” version (June 2010). The CTC votes to fund the Willits Bypass conditional upon its receipt of permits. In the HMMP, CalTrans proposes doubling the number of cattle currently grazing on the 2,000 acres of mitigation properties it has purchased, from 1,500 to 3,000. The Army Corps of Engineers balks. No detailed Grazing Plan is presented that provides evidence that wetland enhancement would be accomplished through the use of cattle. At this point, CalTrans still loves cattle.

Summer: CalTrans proposes to build the bypass in phases, paving two lanes of the four-lane bypass, while placing the fill for all four lanes. The interchanges on either end are to be built to accommodate four lanes. The Army Corps rejects the four-lane fill concept if only two lanes are constructed. Caltrans agrees to abandon this part of their plan.

The State Water Resources Control Board breaks with other agencies and issues the 401 Permit as a “Conditional” Permit with 63 conditions. The Conditional 401 permit cites the revised habitat mitigation plan that was printed in June 2010 as the document the permit is based on. At the August CTC meeting, Caltrans convinces the CTC that even though the Army Corps has still not signed off on the 404 permit, progress is being made. The CTC grants an extension to CalTrans to retain their priority for any new funds until February 2012.

September: The ACE formally denies CalTrans’ 404 Permit request, citing “outstanding issues that must be resolved,” but commits to continuing to assist CalTrans in writing an acceptable mitigation plan. The ACE agrees to perform a study of the mitigation parcels to help CalTrans understand acceptable forms of wetlands enhancement and creation.

2011

In Bolivia, indigenous people blockade construction of a $415 million superhighway through a 3,860-square-mile reserve in the central part of the country that is collectively owned by the Yuracaré, Moxeño, and Chimáne peoples. President Evo Morales later announces his administration is putting the road on hold, effectively scuttling the project.

February: The ACE study determines that enhancement of the degraded wetlands purchased for mitigation would best be achieved by ending the grazing of cattle on the majority of the mitigation wetland properties, and by allowing “natural succession” of vegetation to occur. CalTans agrees to eliminate grazing to achieve the most enhancement credit from the ACE. CalTrans informs its land manager, rancher-friendly local agency the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District (MCRCD), that there will be no grazing on 80 percent of mitigation properties. MCRCD sends a strongly worded letter threatening to back out of its partnership with CalTrans. At this point, CalTrans is confused in its feelings about cattle.

April: CalTrans issues a mitigation plan for the Army Corps. CalTrans has essentially invented a new kind of wetland creation where they scrape off high areas of the wetlands as if they were uplands. The data included in the plan shows that the soil in these areas is not upland soil, but wetland soil. The WEC and Center For Biological Diversity call for a hearing. The hearing never happens.

September: CalTrans’ contractors begin the process of discovering seven archeological sites that were not mentioned in the 2006 EIR. Under the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Quality Act, these discoveries should have triggered a supplemental Environmental Impact Report. CalTrans fails to prepare such a report.

2012

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2012 had an average temperature of 55.3°F in the US, the warmest year on record by 1°F. The global climate change conference in Doha, Qatar, which brings together delegates from countries throughout the world, fails to result in any new agreements by the biggest carbon dioxide emitting countries — such as the United States and China — to cut their emissions.

February: The Army Corps of Engineers authorizes CalTrans’ mitigation plan and grants CalTrans the 404 Permit. CalTrans has cleared its last hurdle with the regulatory agencies to begin construction.

June: The Willits Environmental Center, Center For Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) file suit against the US Army Corps of Engineers in an effort to compel CalTrans, the Federal Highway Administration, and Army Corps “to examine less damaging and costly solutions to regional traffic problems and traffic problems in Willits, and to examine the legitimacy of the mitigation plan.” CalTrans publicly defends its mitigation plan, citing the damage done to Willits’ wetlands by cattle. At this point, CalTrans does not like cattle.

November: In one of the first hearings concerning the federal lawsuit, Judge Jeffrey White refuses to grant an injunction to stop the Willits Bypass. CalTrans is free to begin construction.

December:More than a month before The Warbler began a 65-day occupation of a Ponderosa pine in the southern part of the boggy town of Willits, CA, British forest defenders occupy trees to blockade a roughly nine-mile road through Combe Haven Valley, a lush rural wetlands that lies between the south England towns of Bexhill and Hastings. The Bexill-Hastings Link Road is being sold as a means of reviving the British economy by creating jobs, while alleviating traffic congestion through these small towns.
~~

5 Comments

Huffman only won because of betrayal by oh-so-wonderful “progressive” spoiler candidates. One hundred and seventy five votes put Huffman in office. Maybe we should express some anger toward the people who engineered our betrayal. Otherwise we will continue to resemble a door mat to the criminal element that dominates our politics. Enemies against us are insignificant compared to the enemies amongst us. Corruption has consequences.

Will, thanks for all you’ve done and will do. As we know, “It ain’t over til its over,” and in truth, it will never be over. As long as there is one of us to tell the truth, talk the talk, beat the drum, sing the songs, walk the walk; life will go on. With the rush of all the things we have to deal with “now,” its important to be reminded of what happened “then.”
May the journey continue and may we be reminded of the words of philosopher Sam Keen who said, “The radical vision of the future rests on the belief that the logic that determines either our survival or our destruction is simple:
1. The new human vocation is to heal the Earth.
2. We can only heal what we love.
3. We can only love what we know.
4. We can only know what we touch.”

All I wish is that the bypass can be finished without further interruptions. No more taxpayer funds wasted with unneeded ridiculous work stoppages. Let Willits begin a new beginning of getting our main street back without back up traffic that wouldn’t stop, even if they needed to because they just want to get through town..

Carlin, we all have to weigh the benefits of trying to modify a plan we feel is destructive to our valley and when we accept what we have and move on. I still think its worthwhile trying to modify the northern interchange, but respect those who feel they want the bypass finished without further interruptions.

In the long run, we all are neighbors and will have many more challenges to face in the coming years. May we work to care and respect each other’s views, even when we differ in what we think is best for our community.

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There is NO EVIDENCE that the Bible is from or inspired by a God, or that either of these two man-made biblical scriptures -- foundational to Christianism -- is true: Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave is only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." NONE.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. ~Robert Ingersoll

If prayer actually worked, everyone would be a millionaire, nobody would ever get sick and die, and both football teams would always win. ~Ethan Winer

Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world. ~Voltaire

The strongly religious fear our capacity for moral reasoning that does not require a magical, invisible deity. They fear our ability to be ethical without the threat of hell or the reward of heaven. They fear that our allegiance is not to this or that country, or this or that prophet, or this or that guru, but to humanity as a whole. ~Phil Zuckerman

The idea that God could only forgive our sins by having his son tortured to death as a scapegoat is surely, from an objective point of view, a deeply unpleasant idea. If God wanted to forgive us our sins, why didn’t he just forgive them? Why did he have to have his son tortured? ~Richard Dawkins

Small is beautiful, when small is skilled and dedicated. ~Gene Logsdon

It is the right of every rational adult to choose their time of death and that has NOTHING to do with how sick you are.~Exit International

All religions are lies and scams, and all believers are victims. ~David Silverman

We [atheists] have no martyrs, we have no saints. ~Christopher Hitchens

Morality is doing right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right. ~H L Mencken

I've observed that people tend to live at one of two extremes in the spectrum of life: those who live on the edge, and those who avoid the edge. Those who live on the edge are hanging out in the most dangerous and unstable places — yet they're also often the most powerful agents of change, because the edge is where change is happening; away from the edge, things are naturally unchanging. ~Thom Hartmann

Religion. It's given people hope in a world torn apart by religion. ~Jon Stewart

My 12th year was my most Christian and most boring year in my life. ~Chuck Berry

Come on. You just can’t come up with anything more ridiculous than someone who honestly thinks that all human woes stem from an incident in which a talking snake accosted a naked woman in a primeval garden and talked her into eating a piece of fruit. ~Keith Parsons

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco

Christians don’t need to be born again, they need to grow up. ~John Shelby Spong

Life is not a problem to be solved, nor a question to be answered. Life is a mystery to be experienced. ~Alan Watts

Society is like a stew: If you don't stir it up every now and then, the scum rises to the top.~Edward Abbey

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. ~Buckminster Fuller

How thoughtful of God to arrange matters so that, wherever you happen to be born, the local religion always turns out to be the true one. ~ Richard Dawkins

I’m not saying there isn’t a god, but there isn’t a god who cares about people. And who wants a god who doesn’t give a shit? ~Robert Munsch

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. ~Arthur C. Clarke

Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; Give him a religion, and he'll starve to death
while praying for a fish. ~ Anon

When you understand why you dismiss all the other gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. ~ Stephen Roberts

Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning. ~ Joseph Campbell

The only true definition of an atheist: a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in God or gods. ~Oxford English Dictionary

You have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Faith is just another word for gullibility.

I sang as one / Who on a tilting deck sings / To keep men's courage up, though the wave hangs / That shall cut off their sun. ~C. Day Lewis

Resilience Tools (Basic)

Freethought/Stoics

The Wikipedia of Christian Terrorism (Link)

Books in the Freethinkers Library

What is a fact beyond all doubt is that we share an ancestor with every other species of animal and plant on the planet. We know this because some genes are recognizably the same genes in all living creatures, including animals, plants and bacteria. And, above all, the genetic code itself — the dictionary by which all genes are translated — is the same across all living creatures that have ever been looked at. We are all cousins. Your family tree includes not just obvious cousins like chimpanzees and monkeys but also mice, buffaloes, iguanas, wallabies, snails, dandelions, golden eagles, mushrooms, whales, wombats and bacteria. All are our cousins. Every last one of them. Isn't that a far more wonderful thought than any myth? And the most wonderful thing of all is that we know for certain it is literally true...

The whole world is made of incredibly tiny things, much too small to be visible to the naked eye — and yet none of the myths or so-called holy books that some people, even now, think were given to us by an all-knowing god, mentions them at all! In fact, when you look at those myths and stories, you can see that they don't contain any of the knowledge that science has patiently worked out. They don't tell us how big or how old the universe is; they don't tell us how to treat cancer; they don't explain gravity or the internal combustion engine; they don't tell us about germs, or anesthetics. In fact, unsurprisingly, the stories in holy books don't contain any more information about the world than was known to the primitive peoples who first started telling them! If these 'holy books' really were written, or dictated, or inspired, by all-knowing gods, don't you think it's odd that those gods said nothing about any of these important and useful things? -Richard Dawkins

Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws… It seems to me that organized creeds are collections of words around a wish. I feel no need for such.

I know that nothing is destructible; things merely change forms. When the consciousness we know as life ceases, I know that I shall still be part and parcel of the world. I was a part before the sun rolled into shape and burst forth in the glory of change. I was, when the earth was hurled out from its fiery rim. I shall return with the earth to Father Sun, and still exist in substance when the sun has lost its fire, and disintegrated into infinity to perhaps become a part of the whirling rubble of space. Why fear? The stuff of my being is matter, ever changing, ever moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men? -Zora Neale Hurston

An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated. ~Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Founder

In the history of the world, the number of times a supernatural anything has been proven true is zero. Every god, ghost, spirit, devil, possession, and miracle ever claimed true is a lie. No exceptions. The number of times an atheistic (godless) argument has been proven wrong by a theistic argument is zero... In contrast, every time a theist-versus-atheist argument has been settled, an atheistic argument has won. This does not mean science is antireligion; it just means (or rather, strongly implies) religion is wrong... I challenge anyone to find any scientifically valid testable proof of anything supernatural, ever. If you can prove it, even once, I'll quit my job. I'm not nervous, as it has never been done in history, because it's ALL a lie. ~David Silverman, President

Local Organic Family Farms

THE SMALL ORGANIC FARM greatly discomforts the corporate/ industrial mind because the small organic farm is one of the most relentlessly subversive forces on the planet. Over centuries both the communist and the capitalist systems have tried to destroy small farms because small farmers are a threat to the consolidation of absolute power.

Thomas Jefferson said he didn’t think we could have democracy unless at least 20% of the population was self-supporting on small farms so they were independent enough to be able to tell an oppressive government to stuff it.

It is very difficult to control people who can create products without purchasing inputs from the system, who can market their products directly thus avoiding the involvement of mercenary middlemen, who can butcher animals and preserve foods without reliance on industrial conglomerates, and who can’t be bullied because they can feed their own faces. ~Eliot Coleman